He invented the telecommunications satellite. These satellites are now used for everything from gps, satellite tv and internet, to military applications such as those that communicate troop movements for NATO and the US.

The Apollo 13 module was named “Odyssey” to honor Clarke and his popular “2001 a Space Odyssey”. The craft was very much like the ill-fated spacecraft Discovery which from Clarke’s book which also experienced many problems though it was in the orbit of Saturn and very much impossible to perform a rescue.

A variety of things have been named after him, an asteroid, a video game character (Dead Space’s Isaac Clarke [the Isaac comes from fellow “Big Three” man Isaac Asimov]), a dinosaur species, an award for science fiction writers, a portion of the grammar school, a diving school, and a Sri Lankan astronomy quiz.

Clarke was knighted in 2000 for services in literature. Due to his health he was unable to accept it from Queen Elizabeth II and instead accepted it at a ceremony in Colombo.